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enSummers: Yes, the Robots Are Coming to Take Our Jobshttp://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/03/summers-yes-robots-are-coming-take-our-jobs
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<html><body><p>Jim Tankersley called up Larry Summers to ask him to clarify his views on whether automation is hurting middle-class job <img align="right" alt="" class="image image-_original" src="/files/blog_larry_summers.jpg" style="border: 1px solid black; margin: 20px 0px 15px 30px;">prospects. Despite reports that he no longer supports this view, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/03/robots-are-hurting-middle-class-workers-and-education-wont-solve-the-problem-larry-summers-says/" target="_blank">apparently he does:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Tankersley:</strong> How do you think about the effects of technology and automation on workers today, particularly those in the middle class?</p>
<p><strong>Summers:</strong> No one should speak with certainty about these matters, because there are challenges in the statistics, and there are conflicts in the data. But it seems to me that there is a wave of what certainly appears to be labor-substitutive innovation. And that probably, we are only in the early innings of such a wave.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I think this is precisely right. I suspect that:</p>
<ul><li>Automation began having an effect on jobs around the year 2000.</li>
<li>The effect is very small so far.</li>
<li>So small, in fact, that it probably can't be measured reliably. There's too much noise from other sources.</li>
<li>And I might be wrong about this.</li>
</ul><p>In any case, this is at least the right argument to be having. There's been a sort of straw-man argument making the rounds recently that automation has had a big impact on jobs since 2010 and is responsible for the weak recovery from the Great Recession. I suppose there are some people who believe this, but I really don't think it's the consensus view of people (<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/media/2013/05/robots-artificial-intelligence-jobs-automation" target="_blank">like me</a>) who believe that automation is a small problem today that's going to grow in the future. My guess is that when economists look back a couple of decades from now, they're going to to date the automation revolution from about the year 2000&mdash;but that since its effects are exponential, we barely noticed it for the first decade. We'll notice it more this decade; a lot more in the 2020s; and by the 2030s it will be inarguably the biggest economic challenge we face.</p>
<p>Summers also gets it right on the value of education. He believes it's important, but he doesn't think it will do anything to address skyrocketing income inequality:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is not likely, in my view, that any feasible program of improving education will have a large impact on inequality in any relevant horizon.</p>
<p>First, almost two-thirds of the labor force in 2030 is already out of school today. Second, most of the inequality we observe is within education group&nbsp;&mdash; within high school graduates or within college graduates, rather than between high school graduates and college graduates. Third, inequality within college graduates is actually somewhat greater than inequality within high school graduates. <strong>Fourth, changing patterns of education is unlikely to have much to do with a rising share of the top 1 percent, which is probably the most important inequality phenomenon.</strong> So I am all for improving education. But to suggest that improving education is the solution to inequality is, I think, an evasion.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is the key fact. Rising inequality is almost all due to the immense rise in the incomes of the top 1 percent. But no one argues that the top 1 percent are better educated than, say, the top 10 percent. As Summers says, if we improve our educational outcomes, that will have a broad positive effect on the economy. But it very plainly won't have any effect on the dynamics that have shoveled so much of our economic gains to the very wealthy.</p>
<p>The rest is worth a read (it's a fairly short interview). Summers isn't saying anything that lots of other people haven't said before, but he's an influential guy. The fact that he's saying it too means this is well on its way to becoming conventional wisdom.</p></body></html>
Kevin DrumEconomyEducationTechTue, 03 Mar 2015 17:58:10 +0000Kevin Drum271266 at http://www.motherjones.comNetanyahu and Obama Agree: Global Warming Is a Huge Threathttp://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2015/03/netanyahu-obama-climate-change-terrorism
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<html><body><p>Today Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress on Iran's nuclear ambitions, at the invitation of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). The speech has caused a <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/3/2/8130977/netanyahu-speech-explained" target="_blank">considerable flap</a>, with Democrats criticizing it as an unprecedented affront to President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>But while the president and Netanyahu might have vastly different visions for how to deal with the threat posed by Iran, they do seem to agree on one thing: the threat posed by climate change. Over the past few months Obama has repeatedly emphasized the dangers associated with global warming. In his State of the Union address in January, he said that "no challenge poses a greater threat to future generations" than climate change. And in a recent national security document, Obama called climate change an "urgent and growing threat." Despite GOP protestations to the contrary, Obama's concerns are legitimate: New research released yesterday, for example, found that man-made climate change was a <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/03/climate-change-syria-obama-cpac" target="_blank">key factor in the Syrian civil war</a>.</p>
<p>It seems Bibi had the same thought as early as 2010, when his cabinet approved a wide-reaching plan to reduce Israel's carbon footprint. At the time, the prime minister said that "the threat of climate change is no less menacing than the security threats that we face." From <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Enviro-Tech/Cabinet-okays-NIS-22b-to-reduce-greenhouse-gases" target="_blank">the</a><em><a href="http://www.jpost.com/Enviro-Tech/Cabinet-okays-NIS-22b-to-reduce-greenhouse-gases" target="_blank"> Jerusalem Post</a>:</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>At the UN Copenhagen Climate Summit in December 2009, Israel pledged to reduce emissions by 20 percent from a "business as usual" scenario by 2020.</p>
<p>"The recent dry months, including the driest November in the history of the state, are a warning light to us all that the threat of climate change is no less menacing than the security threats that we face. I intend to act determinedly in this field. In a country that suffers from a severe water shortage, this is an existential struggle," Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at the cabinet meeting.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Israel doesn't face the kind of political resistance from climate change deniers that is all too common in the United States, said Gidon Bromberg, Israel director of EcoPeace Middle East. But the country is struggling to meet its carbon emission and renewable energy targets because government spending is so heavily concentrated on defense, he said.</p>
<p>"They've given the issue a great deal of lip service," he said, "but in practice none of these [targets] have been met."</p>
<p>Still, Israel has been at the forefront of developing seawater desalination technology to confront drought. The country has the <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/534996/megascale-desalination/" target="_blank">biggest desal plant in the world</a>, and last year Netanyahu <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/03/06/3369351/california-israel-water-desalination-security/" target="_blank">signed a deal</a> with California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) to share research and technology for dealing with water scarcity.</p></body></html>
Blue MarbleClimate ChangeClimate DeskInternationalObamaTue, 03 Mar 2015 17:15:32 +0000Tim McDonnell271241 at http://www.motherjones.comThere's Really No Plan B on Iran, Is There?http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/03/theres-really-no-plan-b-iran-there
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<html><body><p>Yesterday was one of my bad days, but one consequence of that is that I zoned out in front of the TV for long stretches. This allowed me to hear an endless procession of talking heads spend time talking about what we should do about Iran.</p>
<p>The striking thing was not that there was lots of criticism from conservatives about President Obama's negotiating strategy. The striking thing was the complete lack of any real alternative from these folks. I listened to interviewer after interviewer ask various people what they'd do instead, and the answers were all the weakest of weak tea. A few mentioned tighter sanctions, but without much conviction since (a) sanctions are already pretty tight and (b) even the hawks seem to understand that mere sanctions are unlikely to stop Iran's nuclear program anyway. Beyond that there there was nothing.</p>
<p>That is, with the refreshing (?) exception of Jason Chaffetz, who sounded a bit like Jack Nicholson in <em>A Few Good Men</em> after being badgered a bit by Wolf Blitzer. <em>Military action? You're damn right I want to see military action.</em> Or words to that effect, anyway. But of course, this sentiment was behind the scenes everywhere, even if most of the hawkish talking heads didn't quite say it so forthrightly. I noticed that even President Obama, in his interview with Reuters, specifically mentioned "military action," rather than the usual euphemism of "all cards are on the table."</p>
<p>In my vague, laymanish way, this sure makes me wonder just how seriously military action really is on the table. I mean, I realize there are no really great options here, but a major war against Iran sure seems like a helluva bad idea&mdash;so bad that even the hawks ought to be thinking twice about this. That's especially true since I've heard no one who thinks it would permanently disable Iran's nuclear program anyway. It would just cause them to redouble their efforts and to do a better job of hiding it.</p>
<p>I'm not saying anything new here. It only struck me a little harder than usual after watching so many interviews about Iran in the space of just a few hours (and I wasn't even watching Fox at all). There's really no Plan B here, and even the hawks are mostly reluctant to explicitly say that we should just up and launch a massive air assault on Iran. It's a weird, almost ghostly controversy we're having.</p></body></html>
Kevin DrumInternationalMilitaryTue, 03 Mar 2015 16:08:17 +0000Kevin Drum271246 at http://www.motherjones.comWhy the Duke Basketball Sexual-Assault Story Won't Go Away Quicklyhttp://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2015/03/duke-sexual-assault-sulaimon-coach-k
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<html><body><p>The Duke University student newspaper <a href="http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2015/03/02/rasheed-sulaimon-center-sexual-assault-allegations-prior-dismissal#.VPSsnkb-C6A" target="_blank">reported today</a> that a player recently dismissed from the school's powerhouse men's basketball team had been twice accused of sexual assault. Moreover, it found that athletic department officials, including Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski, knew about the allegations as early as last March but failed to act for months.</p>
<p>According to the <em>Chronicle</em>, two different women claimed that junior guard Rasheed Sulaimon had sexually assaulted them during the 2013-14 school year. In October 2013, a woman told classmates at a retreat that Sulaimon had assaulted her; at the same retreat in February 2014, another woman made a similar claim. The <em>Chronicle </em>reported that the team psychologist was made aware of the allegations in March 2014, and that several key members of the athletic department&mdash;including Krzyzewski, several assistant coaches, and athletic director Kevin White&mdash;found out shortly thereafter.</p>
<p>At a press conference, Krzyzewski <a href="http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12408702/duke-blue-devils-mike-krzyzewski-refuse-comment-rasheed-sulaimon-sexual-assault-allegations" target="_blank">declined to comment</a> on the <em>Chronicle</em> article. But here are three reasons why this particular story won't be going away anytime soon:</p>
<ul><li><strong>Slow response:</strong> Neither woman filed a complaint with the university or went to the local police in part due to "the fear of backlash from the Duke fan base," according to the <em>Chronicle. </em>Nonetheless, the allegations reportedly were brought to the coaching staff shortly after the second incident was disclosed. According to the <em>Chronicle</em>, most Duke employees are required to report sexual assault; under <a href="http://knowyourix.org/title-ix/title-ix-the-basics/" target="_blank">Title IX</a>, the university must investigate any such allegations. "Nothing happened after months and months of talking about [the sexual assault allegations]," an anonymous source told the newspaper. "The University administration knew."</li>
<li><strong>It's Duke, and Coach K: </strong>It has been nearly nine years since the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/opinion/22pubed.html?_r=" target="_blank">Duke lacrosse rape case</a>, which fell apart after months of intense scrutiny and media attention. Given the prominence of Krzyzewski and his program&mdash;he has the most wins of any Division I men's coach in history, and the Blue Devils are ranked No. 3 in the country&mdash;this story could gain a lot more traction as March Madness nears.&nbsp;Sulaimon was the first player Krzyzewski has <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/2015/01/29/4515245_sulaimon-dismissed-from-duke-basketball.html?rh=1" target="_blank">dismissed</a> in his 35 years at Duke; here's how the coach described the decision in a January 29 press release: "Rasheed has been unable to consistently live up to the standards required to be a member of our program. It is a privilege to represent Duke University and with that privilege comes the responsibility to conduct oneself in a certain manner. After Rasheed repeatedly struggled to meet the necessary obligations, it became apparent that it was time to dismiss him from the program."</li>
<li><strong>It's yet another sexual-assault accusation against a college athlete: </strong>The Sulaimon story comes just days after a former Louisville University basketball player was charged with <a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/college/louisville/2015/02/26/louisville-basketball-chris-jones-arrest-warrant/24044629/" target="_blank">rape and sodomy</a>. On January 27, two former Vanderbilt University football players were <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/sec/2015/01/27/vanderbilt-players-verdict-guilty-rape-vandenburg-batey/22430567/" target="_blank">convicted</a> on multiple counts of sexual battery and aggravated rape, a case dissected in a <a href="http://www.si.com/college-football/2015/02/09/vanderbilt-rape-case-brandon-vandenburg-cory-batey" target="_blank"><em>Sports Illustrated</em></a> feature last month. And in another highly publicized recent case, Jameis Winston, Florida State University's Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback and the likely No. 1 pick in the upcoming NFL draft, was accused but never charged of raping a fellow student. (The school recently <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/sports/ncaafootball/jameis-winston-is-cleared-in-florida-state-hearing.html" target="_blank">cleared</a> Winston of violating its code of conduct.)</li>
</ul><p><em>This post has been updated.</em></p></body></html>
Mixed MediaSportsTop StoriesMon, 02 Mar 2015 21:32:53 +0000Ian Gordon271201 at http://www.motherjones.comWatch John Oliver Turn America's Doomed Infrastructure Into a Summer Blockbuster http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2015/03/watch-john-oliver-turn-americas-doomed-infrastructure-summer-blockbuster
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<html><body><p>America's infrastructure system&mdash;from its dams, bridges, roads, airports, etc.&mdash;is deteriorating and in need of a serious renovation. It's an issue most people agree on, and as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpzvaqypav8" target="_blank">John Oliver noted last night,</a> even has the attention of a "total idiot" like Donald Trump.&nbsp;<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 2em;">Despite all this, the country remains pretty uninterested in doing anything about it.</span></p>
<p>"The lack of political urgency in tackling this problem is insane," Oliver explained. "And you cannot tell me that you are not interested in this, because every summer, people flock to see our infrastructure threatened by terrorists and aliens."</p>
<p>In hopes to cure America's blissful apathy to our crumbling infrastructure, <em>Last Week Tonight</em> took a cue from our movie-going habits by producing a gripping,&nbsp;<em>Armageddon</em>-like summer blockbuster to get people freaked out enough and finally start working on this major problem. Watch below:</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="354" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wpzvaqypav8" width="630"></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p></body></html>
Mixed MediaVideoMediaMon, 02 Mar 2015 16:24:14 +0000Inae Oh271191 at http://www.motherjones.comTikrit is an Early Test of Iraq vs. ISIShttp://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/03/tikrit-early-test-iraq-vs-isis
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<html><body><p><img align="right" alt="" class="image image-_original" src="/files/blog_tikrit_map.jpg" style="border: 1px solid black; margin: 8px 0px 15px 30px;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/world/middleeast/iraq-tikrit-isis.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;module=first-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news&amp;_r=0" target="_blank">Well, here we go:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Iraqi military, alongside thousands of Shiite militia fighters, began a large-scale offensive on Monday to retake the city of Tikrit from the Islamic State....<strong>Monday&rsquo;s attack, which officials said involved more than 30,000 fighters supported by Iraqi helicopters and jets,</strong> was the boldest effort yet to recapture Tikrit and, Iraqi officials said, the largest Iraqi offensive anywhere in the country since the Islamic State took control of Mosul, Iraq&rsquo;s second-largest city, in June. It was unclear if airstrikes from the American-led coalition, which has been bombing Islamic State positions in Iraq since August, were involved in the early stages of the offensive on Monday.</p>
<p><strong>From a military perspective, capturing Tikrit is seen as an important precursor to an operation to retake Mosul,</strong> which lies farther north. Success in Tikrit could push up the timetable for a Mosul campaign, while failure would most likely mean more delays.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is a test of whether the American training of Iraqi troops has made much difference. If it has, this latest attempt to take Tikrit might succeed. If not, it will probably fail like all the other attempts.</p>
<p>It's worth noting that 30,000 troops to take Tikrit is about the equivalent of 200,000 troops to take a city the size of Mosul. So even if the Iraqi offensive is successful, it's still not clear what it means going forward. Stay tuned.</p></body></html>
Kevin DrumIraqMilitaryMon, 02 Mar 2015 16:09:04 +0000Kevin Drum271196 at http://www.motherjones.comO Glory! Pops Staples Was Magnificent—and Rockin'http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2015/02/pops-staples-monumental-legacy
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<p><strong>The Staple Singers<br><em>Freedom Highway Complete &ndash; Recorded Live at Chicago's New Nazareth Church</em><br>
Legacy<br><br>
Pops Staples<br><em>Don't Lose This</em><br>
dBpm/Anti-</strong></p>
<div class="inline inline-right" style="display: table; width: 1%"><img alt="" class="image" src="/files/Screen%20Shot%202015-02-26%20at%202.24.11%20PM.png" style="height: 300px; width: 300px;"></div>
<p>What a monumental legacy Roebuck "Pops" Staples left behind! From the mid-1950s on, his family group, the Staple Singers, was a premier gospel act. In the '70s, they scored a number of uplifting R&amp;B hits, including "Respect Yourself" and "I'll Take You There." Up until his death in 2000, Pops Staples continued making compelling, moving music.</p>
<p><em>Freedom Highway Complete</em>, recorded in April 1965, captures Pops and his kids, Mavis, Yvonne and Pervis, at the height of their testifying powers, electrifying a churchgoing audience the month after Dr. King's history-changing marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. From the exuberant title track to the foot-stomping "Samson and Delilah," it's a thrilling concert, thanks to the interplay of the Staples' robust voices, Pops' shimmering, pithy guitar licks, and spirit-lifting rhythms. It's magnificent&mdash;and rockin'!</p>
<p><em>Don't Lose This </em>collects 10 songs that Pops recorded in 1999 but never finished. Last year, daughter Mavis took the incomplete recordings to Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, who worked on her more recent solo albums, and together they turned the tracks into a proper album, adding voices and instrumentation. (If Tweedy took the liberty of mimicking Pops' distinctive guitar in places, he did a great job.) Mavis' rousing voice is prominent, but it's still her dad's show. His tender yet forceful singing on "Somebody Was Watching Me" and on Bob Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody" is sure to inspire. The album is a fitting memorial to this endearing genius.</p></body></html>
Mixed MediaMusicMon, 02 Mar 2015 11:00:10 +0000Jon Young271036 at http://www.motherjones.comQuote of the Day: Secret Scheming Places of Tea Party Congressmen Revealed!http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/03/quote-day-secret-scheming-places-tea-party-congressmen-revealed
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<html><body><p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/la-na-congress-gop-20150301-story.html" target="_blank">From Republican Rep. Devin Nunes,</a> on the tactics of tea partiers who are holding up the DHS funding bill over their increasingly pointless insistence that it include a provision repealing President Obama's immigration program:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>While conservative leaders are trying to move the ball up the field, these other members sit in <strong>exotic places like basements of Mexican restaurants and upper levels of House office buildings,</strong> seemingly unaware that they can't advance conservatism by playing fantasy football with their voting cards.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Um, OK. Not exactly <em>House of Cards</em>, but OK.</p></body></html>
Kevin DrumCongressSun, 01 Mar 2015 18:43:15 +0000Kevin Drum271176 at http://www.motherjones.comScott Walker Is Making Shit Up, Just Like His Hero Ronald Reaganhttp://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/02/scott-walker-just-ronald-reagan-they-both-made-shit
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<html><body><p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/02/28/scott-walker-calls-reagans-bust-of-air-traffic-controller-strike-most-significant-foreign-policy-decision/?tid=hpModule_ba0d4c2a-86a2-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394" target="_blank">This morning</a>, once again trying to show that fighting against Wisconsin labor unions is pretty much the same as fighting ISIS or communism, Scott Walker repeated his contention that Ronald Reagan's early move to fire striking air traffic controllers was more than <img align="right" alt="" class="image image-_original" src="/files/blog_reagan_patco.jpg" style="border: 1px solid black; margin: 20px 0px 15px 30px;">just an attack on organized labor. It was also a critical foreign policy decision. Here's what he <a href="http://crooksandliars.com/cltv/2015/01/walker-firing-air-traffic-controllers" target="_blank">originally said last month on <em>Morning Joe</em>:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of the most powerful foreign policy decisions that I think was made in our lifetime was one that Ronald Reagan made early in his presidency when he fired the air traffic controllers....What it did, it showed our allies around the world that we were serious and more importantly that this man to our adversaries was serious.</p>
<p><strong>Years later, documents released from the Soviet Union showed that that exactly was the case.</strong> The Soviet Union started treating [Reagan] more seriously once he did something like that. Ideas have to have consequences. And I think [President Barack Obama] has failed mainly because he's made threats and hasn't followed through on them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2015/jan/28/scott-walker/scott-walker-records-show-soviets-treated-ronald-r/" target="_blank">PolitiFact decided to check up on this:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Five experts told us they had never heard of such documents. Several were incredulous at the notion.</p>
<p>[Joseph] McCartin...."I am not aware of any such documents. If they did exist, I would love to see them."....Svetlana Savranskaya...."There is absolutely no evidence of this."....James Graham Wilson....Not aware of any Soviet documents showing Moscow&rsquo;s internal response to the controller firings....Reagan's own ambassador to the Soviet Union, Jack Matlock, told us: "It's utter nonsense. There is no evidence of that whatever."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>PolitiFact's conclusion: "For a statement that is false and ridiculous, our rating is Pants on Fire." But Walker shouldn't feel too bad. After all, Reagan was also famous for making up facts and evidence that didn't exist, so Walker is just taking after his hero. What's more, Reagan's fantasies never hurt him much. Maybe they won't hurt Walker either.</p></body></html>
Kevin Drum2016 ElectionsInternationalLaborSat, 28 Feb 2015 16:06:49 +0000Kevin Drum271166 at http://www.motherjones.comKagan: Netanyahu Speech Is a Blunderhttp://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/02/kagan-netanyahu-speech-blunder
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<html><body><p>Even the ever-hawkish Robert Kagan thinks Republicans blew it by inviting Benjamin Netanyahu to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/at-what-price-netanyahu/2015/02/27/96f9efae-be81-11e4-b274-e5209a3bc9a9_story.html?hpid=z2" target="_blank">address a joint session of Congress:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Looking back on it from years hence, will the spectacle of an Israeli prime minister coming to Washington to do battle with an American president wear well or poorly?</p>
<p>....Is anyone thinking about the future? From now on, whenever the opposition party happens to control Congress &mdash; a common enough occurrence &mdash; it may call in a foreign leader to speak to a joint meeting of Congress against a president and his policies. Think of how this might have played out in the past. A Democratic-controlled Congress in the 1980s might, for instance, have called the Nobel Prize-winning Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to denounce President Ronald Reagan&rsquo;s policies in Central America. A Democratic-controlled Congress in 2003 might have called French President Jacques Chirac to oppose President George W. Bush&rsquo;s impending war in Iraq.</p>
<p>Does that sound implausible? Yes, it was implausible &mdash; until now.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But President Obama has been poking sticks in Republican eyes ever since November, and Republicans desperately needed to poke back to maintain credibility with their base. Since passing useful legislation was apparently not in the cards, this was all they could come up with. What a debacle.</p></body></html>
Kevin DrumCongressInternationalSat, 28 Feb 2015 15:09:22 +0000Kevin Drum271161 at http://www.motherjones.comWhat's French for Chicken Nugget? The Truth About School Lunches Around the Worldhttp://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2015/02/school-lunch-around-the-world-photos
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<html><body><p>By now you've probably seen the <a href="http://http://sweetgreen.tumblr.com/post/103458679563/school-lunches-around-the-world" target="_blank">viral slideshow</a> called "School Lunches Around the World," in which a heavily processed American school lunch is contrasted against an array of fresh, healthy-looking victuals from Italy, France, Greece, etc. It's a compelling argument against the <a href="http://foodsystems.msu.edu/uploads/files/cost-of-school-lunch.pdf" target="_blank">puny resources</a> spent on school lunch in the United States, where, once labor and overhead are accounted for, schools get less than a dollar per daily lunch to spend on ingredients.</p>
<p>But as the great school-food blogger Bettina Elias Siegel <a href="http://www.thelunchtray.com/why-im-fed-up-with-those-photos-of-school-lunches-around-the-world/" target="_blank">points out</a>, those sumptuous photos don't depict actual meals being served in actual schools&mdash;but, rather, staged shots that oversimplify a complex topic. As it turns out, <a href="http://sweetgreen.com/our-story/" target="_blank">Sweetgreen</a>, a chain of health-food eateries <a href="http://sweetgreen.com/locations/" target="_blank">located mainly on the East Coast</a>, produced the photos, but didn't make that clear on its Tumblr.</p>
<p>In case you haven't seen them, here's a sampling:</p>
<div class="inline inline-center" style="display: table; width: 1%"><img alt="" class="image" src="/files/USslide_405630_5063818_free.jpg"><div class="caption">Photo: Sweetgreen<br>
&nbsp;</div>
<div class="inline inline-center" style="display: table; width: 1%"><img alt="" class="image" src="/files/slide_405630_5063802_free.jpg"><div class="caption">Photo: Sweetgreen<br>
&nbsp;</div>
</div>
<div class="inline inline-center" style="display: table; width: 1%"><img alt="" class="image" src="/files/italyslide_405630_5063808_free.jpg"><div class="caption">Photo: Sweetgreen<br>
&nbsp;</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>So we see images of appetizing lunch from countries around the world contrasted against a relatively grim platter of pale chicken nuggets, potatoes, and peas from here in the good ol' USA. Siegel writes that many of her readers sent her a link to the gallery, "understandably but mistakenly" under the impression that the images depicted real-deal lunches, not a corporate photo shoot. The UK's<em> Daily Mail</em> even took them at face value, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2958640/Photos-school-lunches-served-world-reveal-just-meager-America-s-meals-compared-cash-strapped-nations.html" target="_blank">blaring</a> in a headline that "Photos reveal just how meager US students' meals are compared to even the most cash-strapped of nations."</p>
<p>Siegel, though, had questions:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sweetgreen says it based is photos on "some typical school meals around the world," but it doesn't tell us how it obtained the information underlying the photos. Were the meals modeled on public school menus? Private school menus? Are the meals depicted typical of what's served in a given country, or did Sweetgreen cherry-pick the most appealing items? And on what basis were the elements chosen for America's school meal?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Most egregiously, the Greece photo portrays a robust lunch featuring chicken over whole grains with yogurt, pomegranate seeds, a salad, and fresh citrus. Siegel provides a reality check: Debt-plagued Greece doesn't have the resources to provide much of anything to eat for its school kids. She points to a 2013 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/world/europe/more-children-in-greece-start-to-go-hungry.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0" target="_blank"><em>New York Times</em> piece</a> reporting that Greek schools "do not offer subsidized cafeteria lunches. Students bring their own food or buy items from a canteen. The cost has become insurmountable for some families with little or no income." Meanwhile, Siegel points out, even with dire funding for US lunches, more than 20 million economically distressed US kids had access to free or cut-rate lunches in 2013.</p>
<p>She adds that some US school districts do magical things with their minuscule budgets. Besides, even in France, where schools typically have twice as much to spend on ingredients per meal, lunches in some cases can look pretty, well, American.</p>
<p>Here's Sweetgreen's version of the French lunch:</p>
<div class="inline inline-center" style="display: table; width: 1%"><img alt="" class="image" src="/files/slide_405630_5063804_free.jpg"><div class="caption">Photo: Sweetgreen</div>
</div>
<p>And here's one of an French lunch Siegel found on the <em><a href="http://whatsforschoollunch.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">What's for School Lunch?</a></em> blog, where "real people around the world submit their actual photos of school meals." There's no reason to assume all French lunches consist of chicken nuggets and well, <em>French</em> fries&mdash;but there's no reason to believe that Sweetgreen's idealized version is representative, either.</p>
<div class="inline inline-center" style="display: table; width: 1%"><img alt="" class="image" src="/files/French_nuggets.png"><div class="caption">Photo: <em>What&rsquo;s for School Lunch?</em></div>
</div>
<p>After Siegel's posting, Sweetgreen added an appendage to its Tumblr page:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Note: These images are not intended to be exact representations of school lunches, but instead, are meant to portray different types of foods found in cafeterias around the world. To create this series, we evaluated government standards for school lunch programs, and compared this data to photos that real students had taken of their meals and shared online.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sweetgreen's photo essay was designed to support an <a href="http://sweetgreen.tumblr.com/post/102874549598/an-apple-a-day-campaign" target="_blank">effort</a> to raise funds for <a href="https://foodcorps.org/about" target="_blank">Food Corps</a>, a "nationwide team of AmeriCorps leaders who connect kids to real food and help them grow up healthy" through cooking and gardening classes. It's an impressive bit of corporate marketing on behalf of a good cause&mdash;but not an accurate depiction of school lunch.</p></body></html>
Tom PhilpottEducationFood and AgTop StoriesSat, 28 Feb 2015 11:00:11 +0000Tom Philpott271146 at http://www.motherjones.comPresident Obama: "I Loved Spock" http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2015/02/president-obama-i-loved-spock
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<html><body><p>President Obama released a <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/571411444454961152" target="_blank">statement</a>&nbsp;Friday on the death of&nbsp;Leonard Nimoy. The actor, best known for his role as Spock on <em>Star Trek</em>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2015/02/rip-leonard-nimoy" target="_blank">died</a> at the age of 83 earlier today.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy. Leonard was a lifelong lover of the arts and humanities, a supporter of the sciences, generous with his talent and his time. And of course, Leonard was Spock. Cool, logical, big-eared and level-headed, the center of Star Trek&rsquo;s optimistic, inclusive vision of humanity&rsquo;s future.</p>
<p>I loved Spock.</p>
<p>In 2007, I had the chance to meet Leonard in person. It was only logical to greet him with the Vulcan salute, the universal sign for &ldquo;Live long and prosper.&rdquo; And after 83 years on this planet&ndash;&ndash;and on his visits to many others&ndash;&ndash;it&rsquo;s clear Leonard Nimoy did just that. Michelle and I join his family, friends, and countless fans who miss him so dearly today.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Upon meeting for the first time, Nimoy said the president greeted him with the iconic <a href="http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/a-mind-meld-qa-with-leonard-nimoy/" target="_blank">Vulcan salute</a>.</p>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="354" scrollable="no" src="http://www.c-span.org/video/standalone/?c4529613" width="630"></iframe></p>
<p>In the past, Obama has been criticized for being too <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/10/24/7053903/josh-green-obama-crisis" target="_blank">"Spock-like"</a> or methodical in his proceedings, to which the president once playfully responded, "Is that a crack on my ears?"</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="473" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kk0JTQa5OVY" width="630"></iframe></p>
<p>Nimoy's death has sparked an outpouring of eulogies from fans, fellow actors, and politicans alike. Earlier, Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted:</p>
<center>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Spock is gone - and so is our last chance for a Vulcan mind meld with a great son of Boston. Sad day. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LLAP?src=hash">#LLAP</a></p>
&mdash; Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) <a href="https://twitter.com/elizabethforma/status/571389010112860160">February 27, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><p>&nbsp;</p>
</center>
<p>RIP.</p></body></html>
Mixed MediaFilm and TVObamaFri, 27 Feb 2015 21:45:12 +0000Inae Oh271151 at http://www.motherjones.comHero Mom Has the Perfect Response to Son Begging to Join ISIShttp://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/02/teen-tries-join-isis-hero-mom-has-other-plans
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<html><body><p>Everyone of us can relate to having once been a stupid&nbsp;teenager, irrationally whining to our parents about needing to hang out with <em>that</em> group, wear&nbsp;<em>this</em> outfit, etc.</p>
<p>Such is the case of 19-year-old <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/nyregion/isis-plot-brooklyn-men.html?ref=nyregion&amp;_r=1" target="_blank">Akhror Saidakhmetov</a> of Brooklyn who had a burning desire to join club ISIS, like all the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/24/europe/turkey-uk-missing-girls/index.html" target="_blank">cool kids</a>&nbsp;seem to be doing these days. But despite having all the gear to prove he was ready to commit to the band, Saidakhmetov's dreams were ultimately crushed by a very adolescent roadblock&mdash;his mom. From the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/nyregion/isis-plot-brooklyn-men.html?ref=nyregion&amp;_r=1" target="_blank"><em>Times:</em></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p class="rteindent1">Mr. Juraboev and Mr. Saidakhmetov bought tickets, planning to travel to Turkey and then sneak into Syria, court papers say, and as the date of their departure neared, they seemed eager.</p>
<p class="rteindent1">But Mr. Saidakhmetov still needed his passport, and on Feb. 19 he called his mother. In a conversation recorded by federal agents, he asked for it. She asked him where he was going. He said to join the Islamic State.</p>
<p class="rteindent1"><strong>"If a person has a chance to join the Islamic State and does not go there, on Judgment Day he will be asked why, and it is a sin to live in the land of infidels," he told her, court documents say.</strong></p>
<p class="rteindent1"><strong>She hung up the phone.</strong> It is unclear if he managed to get his passport back. But the government&rsquo;s informer helped Mr. Saidakhmetov secure travel documents. In the days before he left, he told the informer that he felt that his soul was already on its way to paradise.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Trust us, young Saidakhmetov, you'll thank your mom one day. We already do.</p></body></html>
MoJoReligionFri, 27 Feb 2015 19:48:41 +0000Inae Oh271136 at http://www.motherjones.comFriday Cat Blogging - 27 February 2015http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/02/friday-cat-blogging-27-february-2015
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<html><body><p>My biopsy is scheduled for this morning, so once again you get early cat blogging. Hopper got center stage last week, so this week it's Hilbert's turn.</p>
<p>Speaking of Hopper, though, a few days ago she demonstrated the wonders of the internet to me. That wasn't her intent, of course. Her intent was to chew through the charging cord of one of my landline phone extensions. This effectively turned the phone into a paperweight&mdash;and not even a very good one. But then I looked on the back of the charger and there was a model number etched into the plastic. So I typed it into Google. Despite the fact that this phone is more than a decade old, I was able to order two used replacements for $4 each within five minutes. Truly we live in a miraculous age.</p>
<p>But I still wish Hopper would stop chewing on every dangling cord in the house. Steps need to be taken, but I'm not quite sure yet what they'll be.</p>
<p><img align="middle" alt="" class="image image-_original" src="/files/blog_hilbert_2015_02_27.jpg" style="border: 1px solid black; margin: 15px 0px 5px 40px;"></p></body></html>
Kevin DrumFri, 27 Feb 2015 19:15:07 +0000Kevin Drum271081 at http://www.motherjones.comThis Correction Is Supremely Unfortunate. I Can't Stop Cringing. http://www.motherjones.com/contributor/2015/02/leonard-nimoy-star-wars-star-trek-star-search-star-man-a-star-is-born-starz
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<html><body><p>Courtesy of <em>New York Times</em> staff editor Michael Roston, this is an unfortunate push alert error:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Oof <a href="http://t.co/Jszb1JeNrB">pic.twitter.com/Jszb1JeNrB</a></p>
&mdash; Michael Roston (@michaelroston) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaelroston/status/571367872959631360">February 27, 2015</a></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>I feel genuinely awful for whoever is responsible for this. Everyone of us has made that mistake, but this will haunt them.</p>
<p>In the interest of solidarity, here's a <em>Star Wars</em> mistake I once made when I worked for <em>CNET</em>:</p>
<p><img alt="" class="image" src="/files/401086_10100840630052439_343090739_n.jpg"></p>
<p>Stay strong, anonymous ABC7 push alert writer. You'll come back from this.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE</strong>: The&nbsp;ABC7&nbsp;digital editor responsible seems like a mensch.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck">
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/bendreyfuss">@bendreyfuss</a> Haunted seems a bit much, no? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MyBad?src=hash">#MyBad</a> <a href="http://t.co/64nPfSGeel">http://t.co/64nPfSGeel</a></p>
&mdash; Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC7NY/status/571387253265530880">February 27, 2015</a></blockquote>
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ContributorFri, 27 Feb 2015 18:25:35 +0000Ben Dreyfuss271131 at http://www.motherjones.comSean Hannity Said Some Something Really Creepy at CPAC Todayhttp://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/02/sean-hannity-cpac-x-ray-vision
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<html><body><p class="rtecenter"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="354" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y0IgD92GRYo" width="630"></iframe></p>
<p>In his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference this morning, Fox&nbsp;News' Sean Hannity had some downright creepy things to say about the "young, good-looking crowd:"</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I can look out in the crowd, I kinda have Fox X-ray vision, and I can see that some of you women, you don't even know it yet, but you're pregnant. It's not your fault. It's not his fault.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The joke&mdash;if that's what it was&mdash;bombed, drawing nervous laughter and groans from the crowd. The Twitter reaction was swift&nbsp;and perplexed:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Hannity has xray vision can tell that some of the women in here are pregnant? IDK it was supposed to be a joke? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CPAC2015?src=hash">#CPAC2015</a></p>
&mdash; Nathalie Baptiste (@nhbaptiste) <a href="https://twitter.com/nhbaptiste/status/571345614337937410">February 27, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Hannity joke at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CPAC?src=hash">#CPAC</a> lands w a thud: "I have Fox xray vision &amp; I can see that some of you women are pregnant, though you don't know it yet"</p>
&mdash; Alice Ollstein (@AliceOllstein) <a href="https://twitter.com/AliceOllstein/status/571345397173649408">February 27, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck">
<p>Really subtle <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity">@seanhannity</a>: if I was stupid, like a liberal, .... Also, "I can see it some of you women are pregnant you don't know it yet"</p>
&mdash; Adam B. Lerner (@AdamBLerner) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamBLerner/status/571345387887452160">February 27, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><p><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 2em;">Other CPAC attendees were apparently unfazed by Hannity's claim that he could seen into women's uteruses.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck">
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity">@seanhannity</a> What a wonderful speech you gave before CPAC today! Wish to Heaven you'd consider running for the GOP Presidential nomination.</p>
&mdash; Paula Duvall (@PaulaDuvall2) <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulaDuvall2/status/571350308724408321">February 27, 2015</a></blockquote>
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MoJo2016 ElectionsMediaThe RightFri, 27 Feb 2015 18:20:19 +0000Sam Brodey271121 at http://www.motherjones.comMarco Rubio Has a Peculiar Idea of How to Defeat ISIShttp://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/02/marco-rubio-has-peculiar-idea-how-defeat-isis
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<html><body><p>Steve Benen points me to Marco Rubio today. Here is Rubio explaining how his ISIS strategy would be <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/rubio-blasts-isis-strategy-he-supports" target="_blank">different from President Obama's:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;ISIS is a radical Sunni Islamic group. They need to be defeated on the ground by a Sunni military force with air support from the United States,&rdquo; Rubio said. &ldquo;Put together a coalition of armed regional governments to confront [ISIS] on the ground with U.S. special forces support, logistical support, intelligence support and the most devastating air support possible,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;and you will wipe ISIS out.&rdquo;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hmmm. As Benen points out, this sounds awfully similar to what Obama is already doing. Local forces? Check. Coalition of regional governments? Check. Logistical support? Check. Air support? Check.</p>
<p>But there is one difference. Rubio thinks we need a Sunni military force on the ground to defeat ISIS. The Iraqi army, of course, is mostly Shiite. So apparently Rubio thinks we should ditch the Iraqi military and put together a coalition of ground forces from neighboring countries. But this would be....who? Yemen is out. Syria is out. That leaves Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey. Does Rubio think these countries are willing to put together a ground force to invade Iraq? Does he think the Iraqi government would allow it?</p>
<p>It is a mystery. What exactly does Marco Rubio think?</p></body></html>
Kevin DrumIraqMilitaryFri, 27 Feb 2015 18:18:50 +0000Kevin Drum271126 at http://www.motherjones.comTurn That Frown Upside Down. These Pandas Make Life Worth Living. http://www.motherjones.com/contributor/2015/02/turn-frown-upside-down-these-pandas-make-life-worth-living
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<html><body><p>It's been so cold and terrible lately that I've really been down in the ditch emotionally. They call it <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/basics/definition/con-20021047" target="_blank">SAD</a>, they call it bad, they call it late for dinner. I know it as <a href="http://www.theawl.com/2014/05/the-life-and-times-of-%C2%AF_%E3%83%84_%C2%AF" target="_blank">&macr;\_(&atilde;&#131;&#132;)_/&macr;</a>. But put away your shrug 'cause, babe, I got a helluva drug: the kids call it <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/02/20/stop-complaining-about-the-weather-for-one-second-and-watch-these-red-pandas-play-in-the-snow/?tid=sm_fb_vid" target="_blank"><em>red panda:</em></a><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="354" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/c/embed/f63fc340-b908-11e4-bc30-a4e75503948a" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="630"></iframe></p>
<p>Happy Friday!</p></body></html>
ContributorAnimalsFri, 27 Feb 2015 18:02:11 +0000Ben Dreyfuss270891 at http://www.motherjones.comRIP Leonard Nimoyhttp://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2015/02/rip-leonard-nimoy
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<html><body><p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/arts/television/leonard-nimoy-spock-of-star-trek-dies-at-83.html?smid=tw-bna" target="_blank">Leonard Nimoy</a>, best known for his role as the iconic Mr. Spock of "Star Trek" died on Friday at the age of 83.</p>
<p>His wife confirmed the news to the <em>New York Times,</em> saying the actor died from "end-stage" pulmonary disease. Nimoy announced he had been battling the disease earlier this year and attributed his many years of smoking for the cause.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Don't smoke. I did. Wish I never had. LLAP</p>
&mdash; Leonard Nimoy (@TheRealNimoy) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRealNimoy/status/554102742084370432">January 11, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><p>Below is his last tweet:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP</p>
&mdash; Leonard Nimoy (@TheRealNimoy) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRealNimoy/status/569762773204217857">February 23, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="473" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Aj-VzCg3syE" width="630"></iframe></p></body></html>
Mixed MediaFilm and TVFri, 27 Feb 2015 17:37:18 +0000Inae Oh271116 at http://www.motherjones.comCalifornia's 3-Strike Prison Reform Is Workinghttp://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/02/released-3-strike-convicts-stay-out-prison
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<html><body><p>California's three-strikes law used to mean that all third-time felons had to spend at least 25 years behind bars&mdash;pretty harsh, considering that the third strike could be the result of <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/cruel-and-unusual-punishment-the-shame-of-three-strikes-laws-20130327" target="_blank">stealing a $2.50 pair of tube socks</a>. Last year, voters decided to scale back the policy, and passed two initiatives to <a href="http://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_36,_Changes_in_the_%22Three_Strikes%22_Law_%282012%29" target="_blank">give judges more sentencing discretion</a> and <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/11/proposition-47-california-prisons-nonviolent" target="_blank">retroactively reduce the penalties for low-level drug and theft crimes.</a> Law enforcement leaders warned that the reform would set free "thousands of dangerous inmates," <a href="http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/en/propositions/47/arguments-rebuttals.htm" target="_blank">and called it</a> "a radical package of ill-conceived policies" that "will endanger Californians."</p>
<p>But almost five months after the second initiative passed, that warning sounds increasingly overblown. About 45 percent of inmates released from California prisons normally re-offend within 18 months. Of roughly 2,000 former life prisoners freed as a result of the three-strikes reform, only 4.7 percent have returned to prison, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/us/california-convicts-are-out-of-prison-after-third-strike-and-staying-out.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;module=second-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news&amp;_r=0" target="_blank">according to the<em> New York Times</em></a>. These ex-convicts had been out for an average of 18 months.</p>
<p>Experts say that intense exit counseling helped contribute to the low recidivism rate. "There's a lot of emotional work," Mark Faucette,&nbsp;director of community relations for the <a href="http://www.amityfdn.org/" title="The foundation&acirc;&#128;&#153;s website.">Amity Foundation</a>, told the <em>Times</em>. "They're moving from a number to a name."</p>
<p>Two decades ago, fear of crime was at <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/144272/nearly-americans-fear-walking-alone-night.aspx" target="_blank">a nationwide peak</a>.<strong> </strong>The murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas by a career criminal helped push Californians to pass the three-strikes law, the country's strictest, in 1994. Crime rates did fall&mdash;but a 2012 <a href="http://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/9405" target="_blank">study</a> from UC-Riverside later found that it had nothing to do with three strikes. The law also added <a href="https://www.law.stanford.edu/organizations/programs-and-centers/stanford-three-strikes-project/three-strikes-basics" target="_blank">an estimated $19 billion</a> to the state prison budget. As federal courts started pressuring <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/us/24scotus.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">California to shrink its prison population</a> in 2009 due to inhumane treatment and overcrowding, the three-strikes legislation made even less sense.</p>
<p>The tides may be shifting for the rest of the country, too. As my colleague Shane Bauer <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/11/proposition-47-california-prisons-nonviolent" target="_blank">writes</a>, a 2013 <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/documents/1017548-rocpoll-crosstabs-1" target="_blank">poll</a> found that even among Texas Republicans, 81 percent favor treatment over incarceration for drug offenders. Other states&mdash;more than 20 of which <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-strikes_law#Enactment_by_states" target="_blank">also passed three-strikes laws in the 1990s</a>&mdash;may also soon be questioning prison time as a blanket solution for low-level crimes.</p></body></html>
MoJoCrime and JusticeFri, 27 Feb 2015 17:19:12 +0000Rebecca Cohen271016 at http://www.motherjones.comRepublicans Shoot Selves in Foot, Schedule Second Shooting for Marchhttp://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/02/republicans-shoot-selves-foot-schedule-second-shooting-march
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<html><body><p><img align="right" alt="" class="image image-_original" src="/files/blog_homeland_security.jpg" style="margin: 8px 0px 15px 30px;">Here's the latest bit of drama in the <a href="http://thehill.com/housenews/house/234067-house-will-vote-friday-to-prevent-homeland-security-shutdown" target="_blank">DHS funding fight:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>The House will vote Friday on a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security for three weeks</strong> in an attempt to avert a shutdown slated for Saturday at the massive agency.</p>
<p>....Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced the new strategy to his rank-and-file members during a closed-door caucus meeting Thursday night. Senior Republicans predicted it would win enough support to clear the lower chamber. &ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve got plentiful support. I was very pleased with the response. I think it&rsquo;ll be a very strong vote,&rdquo; House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) told reporters after the meeting.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is, literally, the worst possible outcome for Republicans. It means they'll spend the next three weeks embroiled in this inane battle instead of working to advance their own agenda. It means the tea party ultras will have three more weeks to whip up even more outrage. It means John Boehner will have to fight his own caucus yet again on this same subject in March.</p>
<p>In the meantime, Democrats are probably cackling with glee. This has got to be one of the most dimwitted legislative own goals of all time.</p></body></html>
Kevin DrumCongressFri, 27 Feb 2015 16:59:36 +0000Kevin Drum271111 at http://www.motherjones.comWatch a US Senator Use a Snowball to Deny Global Warminghttp://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2015/02/inhofe-snowball-climate-change
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<p><em>This <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/26/jim-inhofe-climate-snow_n_6763868.html?utm_hp_ref=politics" target="_blank">story</a> was first published by the </em><a href="http://huffingtonpost.com" target="_blank">Huffington Post</a> <em>and is reproduced here via the <a href="http://climatedesk.org" target="_blank">Climate Desk</a> collaboration.</em></p>
<p>The Senate's most vocal critic of the scientific consensus on climate change, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, tossed a snowball on the Senate floor Thursday as part of his case for why global warming is a hoax.</p>
<p>Inhofe, who wrote the book <em>The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future</em>, took to the floor to decry the "hysteria on global warming."</p>
<p>"In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I ask the chair, 'You know what this is?'" he said, holding up a snowball. "It's a snowball, from outside here. So it's very, very cold out. Very unseasonable."</p>
<p>"Catch this," he said to the presiding officer, tossing the blob of snow.</p>
<p>Inhofe went on to list the recent cold temperatures across parts of the United States, which included <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/02/24/bitter-cold-morning-breaks-long-standing-records-across-northeast/">67 new record lows</a> earlier this week according to the National Weather Service, as evidence that global warming claims are overhyped. "We hear the perpetual headline that 2014 has been the warmest year on record. But now the script has flipped."</p>
<p>Despite the record lows in some parts of the country, the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/19/cold-weather-winter_n_6713104.html">nation overall</a> has been experiencing a warmer than average winter.</p></body></html>
Blue MarbleVideoClimate ChangeClimate DeskTop StoriesFri, 27 Feb 2015 16:09:26 +0000Kate Sheppard271101 at http://www.motherjones.comWhy Did the Pentagon Announce Its Battle Plan for Mosul Months Ahead of Time?http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/02/why-did-pentagon-announce-its-battle-plan-mosul-months-ahead-time
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<html><body><p>Last week, in a briefing to reporters, the Pentagon announced that it planned an offensive against Mosul in late spring. But why? Normally you don't telegraph military plans months in advance.</p>
<p>Joshua Rovner and Caitlin Talmadge suggest two related reasons. First, the U.S. might have decided that Iraqi security is so shoddy that surprise was never in the cards. "Given the notoriously poor operational security of the Iraqi Army," they say, "the chances of keeping secret any Iraqi-led campaign were poor anyway."</p>
<p>Beyond that, they speculate that the Pentagon hoped to accomplish something by <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/02/27/the-u-s-just-leaked-its-war-plan-in-iraq-why/" target="_blank">sending a message:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>The United States may be speaking more to its coalition partners and Iraqi counterparts than to the Islamic State....<strong>The United States might be trying to signal its own trustworthiness as a partner,</strong> stiffen the backs of unmotivated Iraqi forces, create a fait accompli with regards to campaign planning, or some combination of the above. In short, it may be aiming its communications at targets other than the Islamic State.</p>
<p>One can also sense a sort of &ldquo;heads we win, tails you lose&rdquo; logic to the U.S. public messages about Mosul. <strong>If the Islamic State forces uncharacteristically flee without a fight, they will face humiliation and a setback to their claims of control in Iraq.</strong> That&rsquo;s a win, at least operationally, for Washington and Baghdad. <strong>Conversely, if the Islamic State decides to stand its ground and starts trying to flow reinforcements to Mosul in preparation for the defense of the city, that could be a good thing operationally, too.</strong> These forces will be highly vulnerable to the stepped-up coalition air attacks, which are already seriously threatening the militants&rsquo; lifeline between Raqqa and Mosul. Sending reinforcements to Mosul will also draw Islamic State resources away from Syria, where the coalition&rsquo;s ability to fight is much more constrained, and into Iraq, where that ability is more robust.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hmmm. Maybe. After all, we announced the "shock and awe" campaign for weeks prior to the start of the Iraq War in 2003. The hope, presumably, was to scare the Iraqis so badly that they'd essentially give up and flee before the battle even started. It didn't really work, but no one complained about it at the time.</p>
<p>There will be no shock and awe this time, though. Just a lot of grubby, house-to-house fighting led by Iraqi Shiite forces that are probably not very motivated to sacrifice their lives in order to return Mosul to Sunni control. Will it work? I can't say I'm optimistic. But I've been wrong before. Maybe I am again.</p></body></html>
Kevin DrumIraqMilitaryFri, 27 Feb 2015 15:46:08 +0000Kevin Drum271096 at http://www.motherjones.com"Republican Stalwart" Chosen to Lead CBOhttp://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/02/republican-stalwart-chosen-lead-cbo
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<html><body><p>The current director of the Congressional Budget Office, Doug Elmendorf, is pretty widely respected on both left and right, and even a lot of Republicans were hoping he'd be reappointed to a new term by the incoming Congress. But despite his sterling credentials, Elmendorf is insufficiently dedicated to the conservative id&eacute;e fixe of dynamic scoring, which insists that tax <img align="right" alt="" class="image image-_original" src="/files/blog_keith_hall.jpg" style="border: 1px solid black; margin: 25px 0px 15px 30px;">cuts will supercharge the economy and thus cost much less than you'd think. So today the CBO <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/27/gop-dismisses-cbo-director-douglas-elmendorf-picks/" target="_blank">got a new director:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>GOP dismisses CBO director, picks Republican stalwart as chief scorekeeper</strong></p>
<p>Republicans Friday announced they will not keep current chief congressional scorekeeper Douglas Elmendorf and will replace him with Keith Hall, an economist with a long record of service in Washington and deep ties to Republicans.</p>
<p>....The CBO celebrated its 40th anniversary earlier this week, where past directors from both parties praised Mr. Elmendorf for his even-handed approach to the job. But Republicans had wanted to push the CBO to go further in the way it evaluates tax cuts by using so-called &ldquo;dynamic scoring&rdquo; to take into account the potential economic benefit feedback loop that could stem from Americans paying less to the federal government after a tax cut.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I'm not sure Hall has taken a public stand on the virtues of dynamic scoring, but it's probably safe to assume that he's more sympathetic to it than Elmendorf was. Should make for a fun few years.</p></body></html>
Kevin DrumCongressEconomyFri, 27 Feb 2015 15:18:31 +0000Kevin Drum271091 at http://www.motherjones.comDiet Advice From Warren Buffetthttp://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2015/02/one-simple-diet-trick-vast-fortune-and-fame
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<html><body><p>"Is the junk-food era drawing to a close?," I recently <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2015/02/has-big-food-passed-its-sell-date" target="_blank">wondered aloud</a>, citing declining sales from processed food giants like Kraft and Kellogg's. If so, no one has bothered to inform gazillionaire investment mogul and octogenarian Warren Buffett. "I'm one quarter Coca-Cola,&rdquo; Buffett recently <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/02/25/warren-buffett-diet-coke/" target="_blank">told</a> <em>Fortune's</em> Patricia Sellers. "If I eat 2,700 calories a day, a quarter of that is Coca-Cola. I drink at least five 12-ounce servings. I do it everyday."&nbsp;In addition to <em>being</em> one quarter Coke, Buffett literally owns 9 percent of Coca-Cola, through his conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway. And the cagey old investor apparently knows what he's doing&mdash;even though soft-drink sales have been declining for years, Coke's share price has <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=COKE+Interactive#" target="_blank">nearly doubled</a> since 2011, borne up by financial engineering tricks like share buy-backs, <em>Fortune</em> <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/02/11/stock-buyback-binge/?xid=yahoo_fortune" target="_blank">reports</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to regular infusions of the sugary soft drink, Buffett's diet regimen includes breakfasts of Utz Potato strings and chocolate chip ice cream, Sellers reports. If his diet sounds eerily similar to the one you dreamed of pursuing in first grade, that's apparently no accident. Here's Sellers:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Asked to explain the high-sugar, high-salt diet that has somehow enabled him to remain seemingly healthy, Buffett replies: &ldquo;I checked the actuarial tables, and the lowest death rate is among six-year-olds. So I decided to eat like a six-year-old.&rdquo; The octogenarian adds, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the safest course I can take.&rdquo;</p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">For most of us, loading up on processed junk probably&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21715296" style="line-height: 24px;" target="_blank">isn't</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">&nbsp;the&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-drinks/soft-drinks-and-disease/" style="line-height: 24px;" target="_blank">way</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2014/01/24/the-problem-with-potatoes/" style="line-height: 24px;" target="_blank">forward</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">. But f</span>ar be it for me to question Buffett's lifestyle choices&mdash;he's going strong at 84 and has probably made more bank in the past 15 minutes than I'll make in my entire lifetime.&nbsp;</p></body></html>
Tom PhilpottFood and AgFri, 27 Feb 2015 11:00:13 +0000Tom Philpott271041 at http://www.motherjones.com